2. The beginning… When I noticed the bird for the first time he was almost finished with the second nest. I then learnt that they keep at it all summer and may build more than 25 nests on average per season. Well this one ended up with about 40 nests! Lets look at some of them!
10. Only the old nest remaining and more leaves removed from the twigs.Contrary to what I believed it is not the female that breaks up the nest. In this instance the male did ALL the demolishing.
11. Early on an overcast morning he started the next nest. Note the long threads and loops to secure the building material to the cleaned twig…Later that morning he already made some considerable progress
12. This process continued and at some stage there were four nests in various stages of completion.Right at the bottom you can see part of the oldest nest and Mrs Weaver watching. . .
13. Mr Weaver trying his level best and the Missus looking on sitting next to the older nest.
15. Maybe more secure and wider at the top and a better entrance may please her better?
16. Well, she did not like that either. . . A clean start for the next round and the old nest still intact. . .
17. This older nest stayed on for more than a week and the female often went in and sometimes stayed put for quite a while.The nest had since dried out considerably too.Eventually it was demolished as well
18. Another male paid a visit a few times too but Mr Weaver did not seem to be upset by the intrusion
30. I need more building material!! My goodness! She is back again!!
31. …and so he continued day after day, building, waiting for her inspection and sometimes calling her, then mostly demolishing again and starting from scratch – day in and day out – throughout the season over a period of about 5 months building more than 40 nests
35. …and then at the end of summer it was all in vain…and now the tree is growing new leaves again and he will wait till next summer… even his bright red mask is fading as winter approaches…
